Chapter 13

We find then, that tradition, true to her wont, has mixed up fact and fiction; the great point is, that she brings us tidings of a Suevic goddess. Cisa seems the older and better spelling, and Ciza would be harder to explain. Now from this name of the goddess we can hardly derive that of the town Cisara, supposing it to be a purely German derivative; names of places are never formed with such a termination from male or female proper names. It seems more likely that Cisara = Cisae ara, from the altar and temple of the goddess: and later writers might corrupt Cisaram into Zizarim, Zizerim. We read that she was most devoutly (religiosissime) honoured by the Suevi, her anniversary is a grand festival devoted to games and merrymaking, the day is precisely defined as the fifty-ninth after Aug. 1, it fell therefore on Sept. 28. At such a season might be held a feast of the divinity who had prospered the harvest just gathered in. On Sept. 29 the christians kept one of their grandest days, that of St. Michael, who often had to replace a heathen god of war and victory. It seems worthy of notice, that the Saxons had their great feast of victory about the same time, viz., the beginning of October; Widukind pp. 423-4. With the first Sunday after Michaelmas the holy common-week was considered in the Mid. Ages to begin; Scheffer's Haltaus, pp. 141-2. na der hilligen meinweken, Weisth. 3, 240. In the handing down of a precise and doubtless genuine date, I feel the credibility of the story confirmed.

Now who is Cisa? One naturally thinks first of that Suevic Isis (p. 257) in Tacitus, whose name even is not unlike Cisa, Zisa, if we make allowance for the mere dropping of the initial, an omission which the Roman might be prompted to make by the similarity of the Isis that he knew. But even if Zisa be totally different from Isis, she can with all the better right be placed by the side of our Zio, in whom also was displayed a thoroughly Swabian deity (p. 199); nay, together with our supposed feminine Ziu (p. 203) there may have been a collateral form Zisâ, so that her Zisûnberg would exactly correspond to the god's Ziewesberg, Zisberg (see Suppl.). Shall I bring forward a reason for this guess, which shall be anything but far-fetched? The Mid. Dutch name for the third day of the week had the curious form Disendach (p. 125), which being of course a corruption of Tisendach brings us at once to Tise = Zisa. It is a matter for further researchers to demonstrate, (102) but that three divinities, Zio, Zisa and Isis, are assigned to the Suevi, is already abundantly clear.

Our inquiry turns at length to the goddesses of the Norse religous system, of whom unequivocal traces are forthcoming in the rest of Teutondom.

Foremost of these are Frig the wife of Oðinn, and Freyja the sister of Freyr, a pair easy to confound and often confounded because of the their similar names. I mean to try if a stricter etymology can part them and keep them asunder.

The name of Freyja seems the easier: it is motivated no doubt by the masculine Freyr (Gramm. 3, 335). Now as we recognised Freyr in the Gothic fráuja (p. 209), Freyja leads us to expect a Gothic fráujô, gen. fráujons, both in the general sense of domina mistress, and in the special one of a proper name Fráujô. The notion of mistress, lady, never occurs in Ulphilas. To make up for it, our OHG. remains express it very frequently, by fruwâ, frôwâ; the MHG. frouwe, frou and our modern frau have preserved themselves purely as common nouns, while the masc. frô has vanished altogether. In meaning, frouwe and frau correspond exactly to hêrre, herr, and are used like it both in addressing and otherwise. (103) Our minnesängers are divided as to the respective superiority of frouwe (domina) and wîp (femina), (104) wîp expressing more the sex, and frouwe the dignity; to this day we feel frau to be nobler than weib, though the French femme includes a good deal of what is in our frau. It seems worthy of notice, that the poets harp on the connexion of frau with froh glad (fro-lic) and freude joy; conf. Fridank 106, 5-8. Tit. 15, 35.

The AS. and OS. languages have done the very reverse: while their masc. freá, fraho is used far more freely than the OHG. frouwo, they have developed no fem. by its side. The M. Dutch dialect has vrauwe, vrouwe in addressing and as title (Huyd. op St. 1, 52. 356. Rein. 297. 731. 803. 1365. 1655. 2129. 2288. 2510-32-57-64, &c.), seldomer in other positions, Rein 2291; the modern vrouw has extended its meaning even beyond the limits of our frau.

All the above languages apear to lack the fem. proper name in contrast to the ON. which possesses Freyja almost solely as the goddess's name, and no freyja = hera. Yet we find hûsfreyja housewife, Sæm. 212b, and Snorri is still able to say that freyja is a tignarnafn (name of honour) derived from the goddess, (105) that grand ladies, rîkiskonur, are freyjur, Sn. 29. Yngl. saga c. 13. The readings frûr, fruvor here are corrupt, for the Icel. form frû has evidently slipped in from the Dan. frue, Swed. fru, and these from Germany. The goddess should be in Swed. Fröa, Dan. Fröe, which I have never met with; the Swed. folk-song of Thor's hammer calls Freyja Froijenborg (the Dan. Fridlefsborg), a Danish one has already the foreign Fru. Saxo is silent about this goddess and her father altogether; he would no doubt have named her Fröa. Our Merseburg poem has now at last presented us with Frûâ = Frôwâ, as the proper name of the goddess. (106)

Frigg gen. Friggjar, daughter of Fiörgynn and wife of Oðinn, is kept strictly apart from Freyja, gen. Freyju: in the Vafþrudnismâl and the beginning of the Grîmnismâl, Oðinn and Frigg are plainly presented as husband and wife; and as Hroptr and Svâfnir are also names of Oðinn, 'Hroptr ok Frigg, Svâfnir ok Frigg' in Sæm. 91b 93ª express the same relation. Saxo Gram, p. 13, has correctly 'Frigga Othini conjux'. In prayers the two goddesses even stand side by side: 'sva hialpi ther hollar vættir, Frigg ok Freyja, ok fleiri goð (more gods), sem þû feldir mer fâr af höndom!' Sæm. 240b. So they do at the burning of Baldr's body, Sn. 66, conf. 37. And that Danish folk-song has likewise 'Frigge, Fru og Thor'.

The ON. usually has gg where the AS. has cg and OHG. cc or kk, namely, where a suffix i had stood after g or k: thus, ON. egg [[egg; edge]] (acies), AS. ecg, OHG. ekki; ON. bryggja [[gangway; landing stage]] (pons), AS. brycge, OHG. prukkâ; ON. hryggr [[backbone; mountain ridge; afflicted, grieved]] (dorsum), AS. hrycg, OHG. hrukki. In the same way we get an AS. Fricg, OHG. Frikka, Frikkia, even farther away from Frouwâ than Frigg from Freyja.

It is the confounding of these two beings that will explain how Adam of Bremen came to put Fricco instead of Frô for Freyr (supra, p. 212); he would equally have said Fricca for Freyja. Fricco, Friccho, Friccolf were in use as proper names in OHG.

And now it seems possible to explain, what is otherwise unaccountable, why the sixth day of the week, dies Veneris, should be called in ON. both Freyjudagr [[Freyja's Day or Frigg's Day, i.e. - Friday ]] and also Frîadagr in OHG. never Frouwûntac, but Frîatac, Frîgetac, now Freitag, in AS. Frigedæg (for Fricgedæg ?), v. supra, pp. 123-6, and in Faröese Frujggjadeâ (Lyngbye 532).

Among these forms the AS. presents no difficulty: in the OHG. and ON. names we are puzzled by the absence of the gutteral. I believe a solution is offered by that most important passage in Paulus Diac. 1, 8 where Wodan's consort is named Frea, which can only mean Frigg, not Freyja, as Saxo Gram. too, while expressly grounding on Paulus, makes use of the form Frig: 'Paulo teste auctore Frig dea.' (107)

This Langob. Frea accords with the OHG. Frîa, I take it to be not only identical with Frigg, but the original form of the name; it has less to do with Freyja and the AS. masc. freá. As an ON. brû [[bridge]] (pons) stands related to bryggja, so will frî to frigg. The Langob. Frea is = Frëa, Fria, Frija, Frêa. Its root is suggested by such words as: Goth. freis, frijis (liber), OHG. frî; Goth. frijôn (amare), OHG. frîôn; especially may we take into account the OS. neut. frî (mulier), Hel. 9, 21. 13, 16. 171, 21. 172, 1, the AS. freo (mulier), Cædm. 29, 28. freolîc cwên (pulera femina), Beow. 1275. freolîcu meowle, Cod. exon. 479, 2. freolîc wîf, Beow. 1222. freolîc fæmne, Cædm. 12, 12. 54, 28. (108) Now, as frî (mulier formosa) and ON. friðr [[love, friendship]] (formosus), friðr [[peace]] (pax) seem to be all related, even the adjectival forms betray the shifting sense of the substantival. (109)

We gather from all this, that the forms and even the meanings of the two names border closely on one another. Freyja means the gladsome, gladdening, sweet, gracious goddess, Frigg the free, beautiful, loveable; to the former attaches the general notion of frau (mistress), to the latter that of frî (woman). Holda, from hold (sweet, kind) and Berhta from berht (bright, beautiful) resemble them both. The Swedish folk-song, in naming Froijenborg, calls her 'den väna solen,' the beautiful sun.




ENDNOTES:

102. Down in the Riess between the rivers Lech and Wertach, in the midst of Sueves, at a time supposed to be before even the Romans settled in the region, no Slav gods need be looked for; neither does the Slav mythology know anything at all certain about a Ziza, alleged to be Ceres mammosa (Boh. cic, cec, Pol. cyc, Russ. titi, mamma), in support of whom forsooth our Cisa must be wronged; see Hanusch 278. It were better to think of the MHG. name for the zeisig (zeis-chen, siskin) diu zîse, ein kleiniu zîse. Ms. 1, 191b. Wh. 275, 30; which can scarcely have arisen from cicindela (glow-worm, Graff 5, 711); however, no connexion has come to light between the goddess and the form of a bird, though some little birds, the woodpecker, the titmouse, were held sacred. Back

103. Like our frô, the O Fr. dame (dominus) is now lost; dame (domina) remains, like our frau. The Span. keeps both don and doña, the Ital. only donna. The Romance tongues express the masc. notion by two other words, sire, sieur (p. 27) and seigneur, signore, señor, i.e., senior, out of which an Ital. signora, a Span. señora have sprouted, but no Fr. feminine. Back

104. Walth. 48-9. 57. Amgb. 45b 46ª. Ms. 2, 182b 216ª. Docen misc. 2, 278-9. frouwe unde wîp, Parz. 302, 7 (see Suppl.). Back

105. As fráujô from Fráujô, and freyja from Freyja, a song of Frauenlob's, Ettm. p. 112 makes wîp come from a Frankish king Wippeo. Is this an echo of a mythical Wippo, Wibba (geneal. of Mercia, end of ch. VII)? The explanation is as false as when the Edda derives vîf from vefa, for all a woman's being practically a weaver and a peace-weaver; we should have to assume two roots viban and veiban, side by side. The ON. proper name Vefreyja [[Sanctuary-Freyja]] is also worthy of note, Fornald. sög. 2, 459. 3, 250. 594. Back

106. The reasons why we may not take frûa here for a mere title (and so a noun com.) are set forth in the Zeitschr. f. d. a. 2, 189. As for the u in the MS., it looks to me quite plain, else Wackernagel's proposal to read Friia = Frija, Friga, Frîa, would be acceptable (friiu does occur in T. 93, 3). Frûa and Frîa are alike welcome and suitable for my explanation. Back

107. The AS. chroniclers (p. 128) borrow Frea from Paulus. With Frea we must above all connect the frea of the Laws of Liutprand 6, 40 and 67, and this means uxor, domina, not libera, ingenua. Paulus therefore, in assigning Frea to Wodan as his wife, has put her in the place of the Norse Frigg. The substitution is often made: thus when Fornald. sög. 2, 25-6 has 'heita â Freyju ok â Hött (Oðinn),' it is Frigg that should have been associated with Oðinn, as is done in the Grîmnismâl (see Suppl.) Back

108. Conf. the MHG. wîplîch wîp, Parz. 10, 17. MS. 1, 50ª 202ª. 2, 42b 182b 258ª. wîbîn wîp, MsH. 1, 359b; similarly qnlutepai gunaikej, Od. 11, 386, 434. 15, 422. Hesoid scut. 4. Back

109. We might connect Venus with the Goth. qinô, qêns, as venire with qiman; the Wel. gwen would answer to Gvenus for Venus; the Ir. dia beine, Friday, from bean, ben (lady) = Venus = AS. cwên. Back